The present invention relates to a digital mixer for centralized control of an audio system situated at places where concerts, plays and the like are performed.
Conventionally, a mixer for controlling an audio system at concerts or theaters is known. In the audio system at these places, many microphones and speakers are used, and various sound effects are also applied. For example, the mixer controls in a centralized manner to configure how a lot of inputs are mixed, how effects are applied to the inputs, and how the mixed and/or effect-applied results are distributed to an output system. Therefore, some conventional mixers can memorize a configured pattern including a mixing state and connection state of inputs and outputs as a “scene”. Memorizing the set state as a scene can facilitate restoration of the set state in later by recalling the memorized scene.
To recall a scene, for example, a method is used in which a scene number is incremented/decremented sequentially with an INC/DEC switch so that scene data (configuration pattern) corresponding to the incremented/decremented scene number will be recalled. Another method is also known in which a specific scene number is entered using a numeric keypad so that a scene corresponding to the number will be directly recalled.
Further, a number of changes or switching in various scene settings are frequently made, hence some conventional mixers also have an UNDO feature for restoring the past settings.
The conventional mixers, however, cannot review details of another scene (e.g. next scene) other than a currently selected scene while maintaining the active state of the currently set scene. In many cases, the settings of another scene such as the next scene needs to be reviewed when another scene is to be introduced in a concert, play or the like. It is also impossible to change the set state of any other scenes while maintaining the set state of the current scene.
Scene data of all consecutive scene numbers are not always stored, and some scene data may be missing or deleted in the conventional mixer. However, the scene numbers are incremented or decremented on a one-by-one basis for calling a target scene. The operator has to page through all scenes including those of scene numbers lacking substantial scene data, which makes data manipulations very complicated.
Many scenes of different situations are stored in a scene memory. In a sequence of plural scenes for a music event such as a concert or play for which the mixer is used, easy recall of a specific scene at a break of the music event could be required. However, as mentioned above, the operator has to operate the “INC/DEC” switch many times to reach a desired scene at some midpoint in the sequence of the scenes. Otherwise, the operator needs to directly enter a scene number of the desired scene on the numeric keypad. However, the scene number is not readily available in often cases.
In the conventional mixers, scene data include all and detailed settings of the scene. Since the scene data may contain rarely changed data on each scene at a concert or play, the conventional mixers are inefficient in terms of memory capacity and response. Some data do not need to be changed on a scene basis and may be used commonly for different scenes.
Further, when scene data are edited or created while changing various settings, the undo function may be occasionally be used to restore the past setting. However, when the current setting of a scene with a specific scene number is to be moved back to the past setting, setting process for another scene may intervene occasionally. In such a case, the conventional mixers have no way of knowing how many UNDOs are needed to restore the past setting of the target scene number.